Yes I did, I was sewing a bunch of flannel last weekend and there was lint and fuzz in that area

did you put the bobbin case base "finger" back in between the slot in the underside of the throat plate? It won't sew if you don't.

I was told to put a 15-1 needle in my featherweight. Could that be part of the problem?

I am new and not sure where to post this. I am hoping someone can answer 2 questions for me. I just purchased a Featherweight 221 and there are 2 problems. The first is that it has a musty smell. I tried putting come cinnamon in the case, but it hasn't put much of a dent in the odor. Do you have any suggestions?
The second is that the precious owner put tape on it. Some is on the gold What can I use to get the sticky residue off that will not damage the surface?

Thanks for any help you can give me!

The musty smell is very common for a machine of this age. You have to change the drippad andleave it out of the case. There is a place on this board especially for questions on old machines such as yours. There are several answers to this topic there.

Remove and replace the felt drip pad under the sewing machine. New ones can be found online. Or make one yourself by using the original drip pad as a template.

As for the tape, I would try liberal amounts of sewing machine oil left to soak on the tape. It will take longer than the chemical sticky removers to work but the oil will not damage the decals.